RECENT ADVANCES IN ASSESSING AGE DIFFERENCES IN AFFECT DYNAMICS

Abstract Affective experiences are inherently dynamic and short-term changes in affect offer important insights into well-being. Changes in the processes underlying affect dynamics, namely, affect reactivity and regulation, are often invoked as explanations for age-related stability or enhancement of well-being. However, previous evidence for age differences in affect dynamics is inconsistent. In this symposium, we leverage theory-based approaches and cutting-edge statistical tools to gain a deeper understanding of how individuals manage daily affect. Wirth and colleagues investigated age differences in affect reactivity and regulation, using a formalized theoretical approach to affect dynamics. Their results indicated complex, multi-directional age differences in reactivity and regulation. Neupert and Graham focused on the idea that perception of time remaining in life plays a key role in age differences in affect dynamics. Feeling closer to death was related to lower positive and higher negative affect. These relations were particularly pronounced in older adults. Wolfe and colleagues investigated age-differential associations between cognitive capacities and affect regulation preferences. Their results indicated that cognitive capacities affected regulation preferences mostly in middle-aged rather than older adults. Mikkelsen and colleagues related affect regulation patterns to well-being in an age-diverse sample. Their findings indicated that older adults exhibit less variation in regulation strategy use and that regulation effectiveness was less important for well-being in older adults. The discussion will center on the value of considering age-related similarities and differences in affect dynamics, age-relevant factors for successful emotion regulation, and the contexts that might influence affect dynamic processes.


STRATEGIES USED BY OHIO'S NURSING HOMES TO RETAIN CERTIFIED NURSING ASSISTANTS: DO THEY WORK?
Oksana Dikhtyar 1 , and Ian Matt Nelson 2 , 1. Scripps Gerontology Center, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, United States, 2. Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, United States A low retention rate of certified nursing assistants (CNA) in nursing homes (NHs) is a known problem; it drives up facilities' operating costs and negatively impacts the quality of care provided.The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this problem and left facilities scrambling to retain workers.Using data from the 2021 Ohio Biennial Survey of Long-Term Care Facilities, this study examines strategies implemented by facilities to improve retention of their CNAs.Facilities have tried to implement a variety of workplace environment changes such as allowing staff teams to manage schedule and financial benefit strategies such as longevity wage increase to improve their CNA retention.The statewide average NH retention rate was 64% for CNAs ranging between 0 and 100%.Three groups were constructed from the retention data: high or rate of 75% or higher (N = 220), medium or between 50% and 75% (N = 254), and low or under 50% (N = 145).We found that a higher proportion of low-retention facilities implemented most of these strategies compared to facilities with high and medium CNA retention rates.At the same time, we found that a higher proportion of administrators in the high retention group knew all their CNAs by name compared to the low-retention group (50.0%vs 41.7%).These findings suggest that environmental and financial strategies may not have much of an impact on retention rates, but making people feel respected and appreciated could.

RECENT ADVANCES IN ASSESSING AGE DIFFERENCES IN AFFECT DYNAMICS
Chair: Maria Wirth Co-Chair: Mai Mikkelsen Discussant: Susan Charles Affective experiences are inherently dynamic and short-term changes in affect offer important insights into well-being.Changes in the processes underlying affect dynamics, namely, affect reactivity and regulation, are often invoked as explanations for age-related stability or enhancement of well-being.However, previous evidence for age differences in affect dynamics is inconsistent.In this symposium, we leverage theory-based approaches and cutting-edge statistical tools to gain a deeper understanding of how individuals manage daily affect.Wirth and colleagues investigated age differences in affect reactivity and regulation, using a formalized theoretical approach to affect dynamics.Their results indicated complex, multidirectional age differences in reactivity and regulation.Neupert and Graham focused on the idea that perception of time remaining in life plays a key role in age differences in affect dynamics.Feeling closer to death was related to lower positive and higher negative affect.These relations were particularly pronounced in older adults.Wolfe and colleagues investigated age-differential associations between cognitive capacities and affect regulation preferences.Their results indicated that cognitive capacities affected regulation preferences mostly in middle-aged rather than older adults.Mikkelsen and colleagues related affect regulation patterns to well-being in an age-diverse sample.Their findings indicated that older adults exhibit less variation in regulation strategy use and that regulation effectiveness was less important for well-being in older adults.The discussion will center on the value of considering age-related similarities and differences in affect dynamics, age-relevant factors for successful emotion regulation, and the contexts that might influence affect dynamic processes.

AGE DIFFERENCES IN AFFECT DYNAMICS: APPLYING A FORMALIZED THEORETICAL APPROACH
Maria Wirth 1 , Andreas Voss 2 , and Klaus Rothermund 1 , 1. Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Thuringen, Germany, 2. University Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany Emotional aging research is dominated by the idea of age-related improvements that result from shifts in motivation.Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) proposes that as individuals age, they increasingly favor emotion-related goals and savor positive but avoid negative emotions.Previous age-comparative studies on everyday emotional experience typically were descriptive or studied the processes underlying emotional experience in isolation.We aimed at a more holistic approach to test hypotheses derived from SST regarding age-related differences in general emotional dispositions (i.e., anchoring), emotional reactivity, and emotion regulation by using a comprehensive computational approach.We applied our Model of Intraindividual Variability in Affect (MIVA) to data on everyday emotional experiences in an age-diverse sample (N = 378, age range 14 -86 years).Parameter estimations were carried out within a Bayesian framework.Our results provide partial support for predictions derived from SST.Consistent with SST, affect elicited by pleasant events was down-regulated less by older adults and affect elicited by unpleasant events was down-regulated more by older compared to younger adults.Inconsistent with SST, anchoring showed a negative age-related trend, indicating a more positive general affect disposition in younger, not older adults.Reactions to pleasant events showed no age-related differences.Reactivity to unpleasant events was highest in midlife and lower for younger and older adults.We discuss the broader implications of our approach for understanding emotional development across the lifespan.

DAILY SUBJECTIVE NEARNESS TO DEATH AND AFFECTIVE DYNAMICS Shevaun Neupert, and Lyndsey Graham, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
A core tenet of Socioemotional Selectivity Theory is that perception of time remaining in life plays a key role in the selection and pursuit of emotion regulation goals.The current study examined this idea within a daily diary framework, where subjective perceptions of nearness to death were reported on consecutive days.Age differences in the within-person coupling between daily subjective reports of nearness to death and daily affective dynamics were tested.A 14-day daily diary study of 440 adults (M age = 65, range 50-85) in the U.S. was conducted where participants reported on their subjective nearness to death, positive affect, and negative affect each day.Multilevel models were conducted separately for positive and negative affect.Being older and feeling farther away from death on average were each associated with higher levels of positive affect.Daily negative affect was predicted by both within-person and between-person constructs.On days when people reported feeling subjectively closer to death than their own average, they also experienced an increase in negative affect.A significant interaction revealed that this effect was particularly strong among older adults (aged 65+).These results suggest that daily manifestations of perceptions of limited time remaining in life are salient for daily affective dynamics, and that this salience is particularly pronounced among older adults relative to those in midlife.

ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN COGNITIVE RESOURCES AND EMOTION REGULATION TACTICS IN AN ADULT LIFESPAN SAMPLE
Hannah Wolfe, Marissa DiGirolamo, and Derek Isaacowitz, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United Sta tes The current study investigated how trait-level cognitive capacity relates to emotion regulation tactic preferences in everyday life in adulthood and old age.51 younger adults (ages 18-39), 53 middle-aged adults (ages 40-59), and 55 older adults (ages 60+) completed measures of working memory and verbal fluency, as well as 21 days of experience sampling.On each survey, participants indicated if they had regulated since the last survey and if so, what emotion regulation strategies they used and how they implemented that strategy through specific emotion regulation tactics.Each strategy laid out by the process model (situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment, reappraisal, response modulation) could be implemented in three specific ways (called "tactics"): positivity-upregulating, negativitydownregulating, or negativity-upregulating.For example, a person may indicate they used situation selection and then would be asked whether they chose to (a) seek out a positive situation, (b) leave a negative situation, and/or (c) enter a negative situation.Acceptance was also included as a fourth tactic type but was not categorized under any strategy.Proportions of tactics used in each instance was calculated.Acceptance use was significantly negatively correlated with working memory performance; however, this